NEW BEDFORD — Lakeville Health Agent Lawrence Perry and the Buzzards Bay Coalition are both concerned about nitrogen pollution but for different reasons.

For more than 20 years, the coalition has been documenting the growing nitrogen threat for Buzzards Bay's harbors and coves where such pollution turns the water cloudy with algae and threatens marine life.

The coalition is also pushing the state to establish pollution limits for area water bodies that communities will have to follow, as is done on Cape Cod.

Perry, who was among those attending the first of three coalition-sponsored Decision Maker Workshops on the subject, said nitrogen pollution is on his radar, too, and he regularly tabulates emissions and monitors water quality.

Since Lakeville mostly depends on wells and does not have a sewage treatment plant, the town has nitrates in the groundwater and nitrogen sensitive areas, he said.

Dealing with nitrogen pollution is "important in different ways," Perry said. "The Buzzards Bay Coalition is looking at improving the waterways; we are looking at the public health aspect."

Perry said he has a lot of questions on the subject and the workshop, held at the coalition's Buzzards Bay Center, was a way to connect him to the expertise he hopes to later tap.

That's just what the coalition was hoping would happen by bringing all parties to the table, said Robert Hancock, the coalition's vice president for education and public engagement.

"We want to help work with regional decision makers at municipal, neighborhood and home levels," Hancock said at last Wednesday's meeting. "Solving the nitrogen problem is really going to be a collective process."

Ron Labelle, commissioner of New Bedford's Department of Public Infrastructure, said the city's wastewater management system is quite efficient and its nitrogen emissions have not been alarming. He said he attended the workshop to learn more about the potential watershed impact in area communities such as Lakeville.

"My concern is that there is a lot of development taking place where there are no sewer lines. I have to be cognizant how building out our ponds is going to affect our drinking water," he said.

The city's water supply is derived from five ponds located in Lakeville and Rochester: Assawompsett, Great and Little Quittacas, and Long and Pocksha ponds. New Bedford owns 12,352 acres of watershed around the ponds, according to the city's website.

The Buzzards Bay Coalition has also scheduled workshops on March 20 and April 3 that will address landscape solutions for effective stormwater management and fertilizer uses, and planning and funding solutions to reduce nitrogen. The March 20 session is at the UMass Cranberry Station in East Wareham and the April 3 session is at the Massachusetts Maritime Academy in Bourne; both start at 8:30 a.m.